Memeorandum

March 09, 2009

'Chas' Freeman

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary picks up the media blackout on the otherwise-controversial Chas Freeman appointment as head of the National Intelligence Council. Ms. Rubin notes that Freeman is taking incoming fire from the left flank, as Ashley Rindsberg of the Huffington Post flags his support of a national identity system.

Ms. Rindsberg's source seems to be the second point of this summary of Mr. Freeman's interview with two members of the 9/11 Commission on Dec 3, 2003. Let me extract a bit more - I daresay critics from the right will be taken by point three:

Freeman proposes several changes:

First, the U.S. government should improve the visa system. More names to the forms should be added in order to distinguish among the many "Abdullah bin Mohammads."

Technical means should also be used to cut the wait.

Second, the United States should implement a national identity system, so we better know who is who .

Third, the war on terrorism should be seen primarily as a law enforcement and intelligence war, not as a military one. (U)

Point three - the war on terror is primarily a law enforcement and intelligence effort, not a military one - was also made by Mr. Freeman in this 2006 address to incoming members of Congress. This snippet has not stood up well:

Our recovery from our strategic debacle in the Middle East will not be as rapid or sure as our recovery from defeat in Vietnam.

I am not sure how Mr. Freeman could have proposed either in late 2003 or in late 2006 that the US proceed in Iraq and Afghanistan with a focus on law enforcement and intel rather than as a military effort. Obama identifies Afghanistan as part of the central front in the war on terror and wants more troops there - how would Mr. Freeman explain that to our NATO allies?

Comments

I thought there were aspects of a national ID that bothered everybody - the right worries about the government tracking our movements and activities; the left shares those concerns, with "movements" specified as "across the border as far from the INS as possible" and "activities" defined as "voting Chicago-style".

More simply, the right worries the government will abuse the ID to make life more difficult for law-abiding citizens, and the left worries the government will use the ID properly to make life more difficult for law-breaking persons.

This snippet has not stood up well:
Too soon to say. There's no progress that can't be destroyed provided enough progressives put their minds to it.

Wendy Morigi, a spokeswoman for Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair -- who picked Freeman -- says "Director Blair selected Ambassador Freeman because he thought he would be the best person for the job.

Of course the main opposition to Mr. Freeman is based on his heretical position that American and Israeli interests are not entirely congruent. Damm him. Brimstone and all that.

Where is that stake I left laying around here? Burn, baby, burn.

TM, being an honorary member of the Likud on the Potomac crowd - or as the man said when I visited Mt. Vernon, the Poty-Mac - of course could not be more congruent. Congruency - at least on this subject - is his currency. Benji, where are you? Do you need a foot rub? It's Tommy?

Meanwhile, with that said, I am off to work so I can pay my taxes. After all, Israel needs guns. Strangely, the same were probably used to destroy stuff in Gaza.

Strangely, the stuff in Gaza is the same stuff that needs to be fixed. So it turns out my tax dollars will be used for that too. Hillary? Now, unlike TM, I think using my taxes to fix things, instead of blowing things up, is a good idea, especially on the foreign policy front. Turns out, TM, these people have feelings too.

And so, when I am done working to pay those taxes, the ones meant to blow stuff up in Gaza, well then I will keep working -because I have to pay taxes to the US government so that it can, in turn, pay to fix the damages caused in Gaza.

Hey, TM, what about us rats on treadmill? Help us with your pithiness.

The GOP letter, even a poison pen one, is nice but it won't phase Pres. "Whatever B.O. wants, B.O. gets." He's the prize pony that emerged from that huge, steaming pile of Chicago carp. He is now the decider.

Whenever the Democratic minority wanted to protest a so-called injustice, the cameras were in place out on the Capitol steps. No letters, just face time on the evening news.

Heh, TM Duh, Freeman's heresy is that American and Muslim interests are congruent. It's a big error that Obama is making. But, money talks, and both Freeman and Obama are whores.
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You note that Obama isn't dirtying himself defending Freeman's dirty opinions? He wants the dirty opinions, but wants to appear to be ingenuous about them. What a crock, and you too, TM Duh, from whom hate drips unstrained.
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And just what, exactly, is Blair's problem? One has got to question his judgement, too. Unless, as suspected, it's not his choice, but Obama's.

So where are Freeman's defenders, other than his son, who seems intemperate. Where did that haymaker come from, and why is his opinion useful?

I'm serious, why won't those supporting him defend him? Is he heretical, or treasonous? Good question. Huh, TM Duh? You don't weigh in with support, just anti-Israel garbage. Do you like this authoritarian monster? This police work fool. If so, why? Interpol is going to arrest the Taliban? Don't make me laugh.
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I love it when Jew hating tools like TM Duh raise their hideous mugs and side with the pali vermin that celebrated 9/11. Go pray at Rachel "Pancake a la Caterpillar" Corrie's grave, idiot.

Regarding that other jerkoff, Chas Freeman, the WSJ had an op-ed opposing him that led to a letter to the editor from a bunch of gasbag former ambassadors praising his qualifications; which was pretty rich coming from the sort of ass pirates that have infested the State Department and consider Alger Hiss an American hero.

Unbelievable, that the representative of the most theocratic state, masquerading as an ally, which has underwritten the PLO,
Hamas, and their own Black One Hundreds, AQ; has a seat at the table. They also helped underwrite through the duel oil shocks, a good deal of the turmoil of the 1970s and early 80s. And everyone is who every had a criticism of same, were labeled as outside the mainstream

"Strangely, the stuff in Gaza is the same stuff that needs to be fixed. So it turns out my tax dollars will be used for that too. Hillary? Now, unlike TM, I think using my taxes to fix things, instead of blowing things up, is a good idea, especially on the foreign policy front. Turns out, TM, these people have feelings too."

What is wrong with supporting your local Crime Lord? Why give your money to foreign gangsters when you could take out a direct debit to the Cosa Nostra?

They also helped underwrite through the duel oil shocks, a good deal of the turmoil of the 1970s and early 80s. And everyone is who every had a criticism of same, were labeled as outside the mainstream

Posted by: narciso | March 10, 2009 at 08:36 AM

And lets not forget that those oil shocks are a cheif reason that Africa has been mired in poverty for the last 3 decades. A huge chunk of the debt the thrid world has racked up was a result of having to borrow dollars at huge interest rates to buy artificially inflated oil. That debt was later compounded by more debt to pay the interest on the oil debt. Things weren't wonderful in Africa before 1973, but they would be a lot less misserable there now if OPEC hadn't crushed their economies to "punish" the West.

This birth certificate issue is going to bite him in the butt eventually, but it won't ripen until enough people realize what a scam artist he is. I still have a horror that what's on the birth certificate is merely embarrassing, and will ultimately be used to cement sympathy for him.

But until we know, we don't know, and the not knowing, the deliberate hiding of evidence is not confidence inspiring. He's hiding something. What is it?
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Yep, Deb, holding the House Republicans in line was a stunning display of discipline, that must worry Reid, Pelosi, and Emmanuel. The Republicans are going to get a spine even if it requires a bone transplant from an enraged hoi polloi, with Rush as Chief Surgeon.
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I do, too, Jane. A young friend of mine when to intern for him as a college freshman, liked him so much he bcame a republican and headed up the Young Republicans at one of the most liberal universities in the country. He's as nice to work for as he is competent.

If a father's name is absent, it highlights what a fantasy all his autobiographies were. That might have inhibited him pre-election. I have little doubt that the Dunham family history is one lie after another, and I suspect Obama himself doesn't know the truth about his origins.

But you have a point. What could be disablingly embarrassing now? That's why I think that he may truly be ineligible and he is just relying on chutzpah, which has been his modus operandi from birth.

And the Wiki censoring? Problematic, if only because it demonstrates sensitivity to alternative views, and the ability to censor. The volume of smoke increases. Add a little O2 and watch the result.
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Am I alone in thinking Obama is a poor student of history? Or is it he assumes we are. His speech today:

They forget that Lincoln helped lay down the transcontinental railroad, passed the Homestead Act, and created the National Academy of Sciences in the midst of Civil War. Likewise, President Roosevelt didn’t have the luxury of choosing between ending a depression and fighting a war. President Kennedy didn’t have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon. And we don’t have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term.

Sounds to me like that statement was written to respond to Buffett's claim that O is trying to use this crisis to shove a lot of extraneous and controversial matters down everyone's throats when he ought to be concentrating on one thing:the economic crisis.

He misses the point that everything he is doing the reverse of what that National Homestead Act, the expansion of the railroads,( more carbon mischief), putting forth a useless form of biotechnology, instead of one that actually works. The Depression didn't end until the producers not the planners, got control of theeconomic
structure. Likewise, Kennedy, who did really
preciously little for civil rights, did move on space travel.

Never mind that his plans aren't rebuilding the economy over the long term, they are destroying it short and long term. Like I say, he's only fooling himself and Axelrod.
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I do think it was a response to Buffet, which shows how much he'll listen to a "team of rivals", I guess.

The FDR stuff is preposterous to me. FDR took the "luxury" of years and years to end the depression before we entered WWII.
Is he trying to imply he's got 7 years of this economy before he should be judged.

FDR also didn't have the "luxury" of deciding to empty out detainment camps in the middle of the war.

what I find fascinating is that the wheels are coming off on the Obama train. He's now catching it from across the spectrum and for a wide range of issues. The candidate who presented himself as all things to all men is in fact who we thought he was from the outset.

We are hearing the words incompetent, lazy, socialist, imprudent, overreaching etc all withing the first 7 weeks. FDR had his 100 days, but so far Obama is at the halfway point to 100, and people are freaking out.

My concern is that the democrats are trying to steamroller through such far reaching legislation to ensure their own grip on power for the forseeable future that it will take an act of God to remove them. They really are a cancer. Not that many of the Republicans are much better, but the sheer criminality of many of the the democrats is beyond belief at times. This really is a battle for the soul of the nation.

What could be embarrassing on a birth cert? I don't think the omission of a father's name in this day and age would be considered embarrassing. Are you thinking of something else?

I have wondered if the birth certificate is completely innocuous, but the embarrassment is that it proves that the documents that the campaign handed out were forgeries. (You know, "fake but accurate" but in this case really accurate, at least as far as the place of birth which is what's in question.)

For example, suppose back in 1961 a "helpful" government clerk looked at his mother's name, said, "Stanley can't be her first name, must be 'Ann Stanley Dunham' rather than 'Stanley Ann Dunham'" and the clerk "fixed" it.

Or Michelle made a comment tut-tutting the birth-certificate litigators for trying to make it a scandal that Obama was adopted by his stepfather. Maybe that's the scandal: When Obama was 11, he moved back to Hawaii, and this was also the point at which Stanley Ann stopped living with Soetero and he married a second wife. Perhaps Obama moved back to Hawaii to escape Sharia law. (In Indonesia, Stanley Ann would have had no legal rights to custody if Soetero had wanted to make an issue of things.) But anyway, if Soetero officially adopted Obama, and then nobody ever did anything to undo the adoption, then the 1961 version of the birth record has been erased from the Hawaiian system, and a 21st century birth certification for Obama would have Soetero's name on it, not Barack Obama Senior. Again, that doesn't show that Obama is ineligible, just that the paper that the campaign produced was a forgery.

This is a nice opportunity to point out how untrustworthy the press is. People who aren't involved in politics depend on the press to keep them informed. Well, lots of press people were united behind this guy, who after 7 weeks is obviously a complete bust - what else did they get wrong?

And was it maliciousness or just incompetence?

It's not like nobody saw this coming. Somehow the warnings never got that much airtime. I'd like the people who don't pay much attention to wonder why that is.

Somehow the warnings never got that much airtime. I'd like the people who don't pay much attention to wonder why that is.

I've been burning up the phone lines to chat with the muddle (from various states) who only tune in at the last minute before the election. I never bring up politics, they do, and I just listen and empathize so I'm not guiding the conversation.

Overwhelmingly, they feel like they bought a pig in a poke that turned out to be a rattlesnake.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this morning, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said that the many quotes of Freeman's that critics are taking issue with are being twisted.

"As far as the statements that have appeared in the press, I would say that, I would say that those have all been out of context," Blair said. "And I urge everyone to look at the full context of what he was saying."

The new standard for O's administration is looking at the full context.

Next question: if the father was genuinely unknown, or if there were custody issues as Clarice suggested, what name was Barack given at birth? Surely they wouldn't have "unknown father" and "Barack Obama, Jr." on the same piece of paper. Kinda defeats the purpose.

We have a bi-racial, extended family member whose father was unknown, but we knew one of the "possibilities" was black. She was nearly a month old before you could tell she was bi-racial by looking at her, and the possible white fathers were eliminated. In fact, her skin was more pink and white for several weeks than that of my daughter at the same age.

Now, she is not identifiable as mixed race unless you know her mother is white.

Short version, maybe BO didn't look black tll after the paperwork was done.

"Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret."

Since I'd be afraid to have cosmetic surgery, it's nice to have this reminder that it is no panacea.
BTW this is a useful display to show the kids why they really shouldn't be so keen on attaining celebrity.

As to Obama's citizenship, I really think at this point we are going to have to move on. Regarding parentage, I have always believed that one cannot choose one's family. He may or may not be hiding something with his whole birth certificate coverup, but the bottom line is that he does have an American mother and it seems he was born in Hawaii.We can argue technicalities and cast aspersions, but I would rather judge him for his actions as a man. And now, I think those actions are speaking very loudly indeed. Let's not get tarred as a loonie right site.

"It seems he was born in Hawaii". There are a lot of 'it seems' about Obama, and now that the scales are falling from eyes, it seems that people are wondering about some of the 'it seems'. 'A pig in a poke', 'The Great Pretender'. This is a big theme, and if the big boys want to get rid of him, they'll be asking about his birth certificate, too. It's an easy solution to a big problem. Maybe.

Obama's campaign, at the same time as promoting a clearly forged copy, marginalized everyone who doubted it. What's up with that?
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You just can't get past the belief that no one would have the chutzpah to run for President if he was ineligible. Well, I about half think that Obama, if he is ineligible, didn't know it until sometime last year. Remember the dive into his passport files? Remember that the first, and apparently main, effort from the 'Fight the Smears' site was about his birth certificate? Some of you may not be aware that that COLB on that site was clearly forged. Obama has depended upon the sworn testimony of Hawaii officials that there is a valid vault copy of his birth certificate on file, but they have not sworn to what it says. Box 7c is the key, and it does not have to have a site in Hawaii for his birth for it to be a valid birth certificate.

I believe he was more likely born in Hawaii than anywhere else, but I'd sure like to know why he is spending millions of dollars to hide the truth from us. And it irritates the Hell out of me that the curious among us are marginalized as 'crazy'. That is thuggery. Typical, nay pathognomonic, Chicago and Axelrod thuggery. We do not have to put up with it.
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bad, Maybee - you are being very fair to the gals, I notice. What about the guys - would that be a hair and makeup remedy too? grin

Actually, I rather respect the ones who have aged naturally. Perhaps the photo montage should have been of the celebs that have become bizarro looking due to plastic surgery, etc. I am especially repulsed by the grotesque puffy lips look.

So did I, except for those of Keith Richards, Kathleen Turner and Mickey Roarke. Brigitte Bardot looks a little like an aunt of mine, who used to look a little like Brigitte when she was young, and I think they're both fine looking old ladies. And what's wrong with Steven Segal in that pic, or Al Pacino? I didn't get those.

Still reading this thread in between making breakfast. As I was breaking eggs, I thought, hm, this birth cert thingie, it does have to do with sex. And the e-mail with the Hawaii Reporter article was the 69th of my emails. And maybe Obama's birth cert shows he was born as a baby girl and somewhere along the line he had a sex change.

Laughter is a great antidote to cutting onions.

Seriously, though, I'm a thinking up a slogan on the lines of show us your cert. The Constitution demands it and we, the people, have a right to see it.

Pagar at 5:22: "In no other job in America would one get by saying I am just not going to show my birth certificate when the job specification says one has to be a US citizen."

You are so right.

Kim at 5:34: "...sworn testimony of Hawaii officials that there is a valid vault copy of his birth certificate on file, but they have not sworn to what it says."

It's so good that we all look at this from all possible angles.

More thoughts on why the million-dollar coverup: There could be no vault copy, with a false sworn testimony from HI.

Or the vault copy could have been planted there in recent times, with the help of an Obama supporter in the HI records office. If planted by an outsider, unbeknownst to the HI officials, they are probably not scrutinizing it for type of paper used, watermarks, comparing typestyles to other certs of that era, etc. That would be a reason not to have the actual piece of paper scrutinized in a court of law or by FBI forensic experts.

Yes, I worry that a vault copy may have been tampered with by experts, by now. Nonetheless, I've a fair amount of confidence that if it gets dragged into court, it will be examined by people expert enough to catch even an expert forgery. There is real expertise out there, because the market for forgery is lucrative.
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Original documents speak for themselves; copies all need provenance. The provenance of the copy we've seen stinks, and it's also obviously a forgery. Now, why is that? Why is not the original being allowed to speak for itself? It's utterly damning, and it's crazy to think that wanting to see it and hear its message is crazy.

Ah, you're back, oh great. I wanted to ask you about the passport event. Who was digging into that? Obama's people or Republicans? And what was found, do you know? An original birth cert would be needed for a passport, right?

What's so bad about the guy. Haven't read anything he said that was wrong. Of course GWOT is more a law enforcment issue than military. Iraq has been a complete waste of resources. Soldiers break things and kill people. They put ordnance on target. They're not a bunch of Wilsonian nation builders.

Obama's people, BR, and I don't know what they found. No one does, except, of course, Obama's people.

Yeah, sure, I'll dial up Interpol and have them arrest the Taliban. None of those moderate Taliban, though, nosiree. TCO, any society needs a good cop to keep civil disorder. Even libertarians understand that little concept. Ours, today, is a variable coalition of the world's functioning democracies.
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